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Thursday, 31 May 2012

Last week, I told you about
Athanasius, one of my favourite early church theologians. Let’s carry that on to another of my
favourites: Gregory of Naziansus.

In
Gregory’s time, the debate was not about whether Jesus was God or human. It was
about whether Father, Son and Holy Spirit were three Gods – or one God
appearing in three ways, or whatever.

The
final understanding, the one Christians have been struggling to get our minds
around ever since, was that there are three beings or persons, in one essence.
Father, Son, and Spirit are separate individuals, but live as one
God-ness.

Early
church theologians used a number of analogies to explain what this meant. For
example, a spring leads to a stream
which leads to a river – they’re all the same water, all the same “thing”
essentially, but they are all different as well. There was the roots, trunk and branches – all
the same tree, all the same thing, but they have their own unique properties as
well.

My
favourite explanation was from Gregory.
I haven’t read this in over a decade, so I can’t give you the exact
words, but it was something like this:
What was Adam? A creature made by God. What was Eve? She was Adam’s rib,
the same thing as Adam, but she was also another creature made by God. What was Seth? He was Adam and Eve’s son, he
was both of them – the same stuff – but he was also another creature made by
God. They were three people, but they were also all the same thing as Adam.

There’s
all sorts of other ways people have tried to explain the Trinity over the
years. One from the Greek church which I find quite wonderful is “perichoiesis”
- a dance. In this dance, there are three dancers, at different times they each
are featured more prominently, but they are all always there, dancing together.

When the earth was formed – you spoke
your Word over it and breathed your Spirit into it – to give it life.

Every breath we take each day, is
a reminder of your life-giving Spirit, breathed into us, enlivening us.

We thank you that you never leave
us alone. In all your sadness and despair, along with our joy and hope, you are
present with us.

Your Spirit accompanies us one
very step of life’s journey.

Even when we turn our backs on
you – your Spirit does not leave us, but remains, patiently sustaining our
lives and waiting in love to guide us back to you.

We confess that we do turn our
backs on you – we fail to love you with all that we are and all that we have.
And we fail to love our neighbour as ourselves.

We thank you for your great mercy
and love.

Love so great that Jesus would
die for us.

Love so great that, even knowing
our sinfulness, your Spirit would enable us to come into relationship with you.

We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Declaration of Forgiveness

Jesus died and rose again so we
might be forgiven our sins and raised to new life.

The Spirit has come so that we
will never face life on our own.

So I have confidence to say to
you: “Our sins are forgiven.”

Thanks be to God!

Kid’s Time - Josh

Hymn Together in Song 412 God sends us his Spirit

Scripture -

Acts 2:1-21

John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

This is the word of the Lord

Thanks be to God!

Hymn Together in Song 409

During this hymn – everyone come
out (as ready), light a candle and place on the communion table.

Sermon

Most of us, by the time we reach
adulthood, have experienced grief in some form or another. Some person, or even
some pet, we love has died, and left us with that strange empty, despairing
feeling – the sense that something is missing and can never be replaced.

Endless books have been written
on the psychology of grief. But the best explanation I’ve read was in a book
called “Sometimes I Wake Up Grumpy, and Sometimes I Let Him Sleep.” The
explanation of grief was simple. The good
news about grief is that it’s like a game, an arcade game – pinball. The bad
news is you’re the ball. That’s grief in a nutshell, you bounce from one
emotion to another from highs to lows, back and forwards for no apparent reason.
And it can go on for months and years.
Even when grief is “resolved” when you’ve come to terms with your loss, life
will never be exactly as it was.

The disciples gathered behind
locked doors. The way the story is told,
it’s not just the 12, but the wider group.
This was a group who were still in grief. They were waiting in
Jerusalem, as Jesus had told them to do.

In a short space of time – about three
years, they’d been gathered together,
around Jesus. They’d travelled with him, eaten with him, learned from
him, and seen him perform miracles which confirmed he was no ordinary person.
They’d come to believe he really was the Son of God.

Through all of this, they’d seen
him argue with the civil and religious leaders of the nation, and make some
powerful enemies. He’d defied every human authority; bowing only to the
authority of God.

All of this – yet, when the
soldiers came – he didn’t argue, didn’t fight back There was none of the defiance that threw over
the tables in the temple. The only point he chose to argue was that his
followers should be allowed to go free.

And they did; in fear and confusion,
and shock, they went free. They ran away. The whole thing must have seemed so
incredibly unreal, a living nightmare.

As stories got out about the
trial, and Jesus being passed from one authority to another, the fear and
confusion and shock could only have grown. And then, those who had the courage
to be there, could only look on helplessly as he was crucified.

Easter Sunday had brought another
shock – death was no longer permanent. Even their most basic understandings
about existence were challenged over the next 40 days as Jesus talked with
them, showed them his scars, at with them, appeared in locked rooms. He did
normal and abnormal things – but even normal activity had to be strange with
someone they’d seen killed.

At the end of the 40 days, they
lost him once more. Imagine the grief of
having lost someone they loved twice over!

So these were the people who’d
gathered together – people who’d been on an emotional roller-coaster up and
down between joy and hope, depression and despair. They were the last group of
people you’d expect to be about to change the world!

But with God, an ending is never just an ending. Despair is never the end
of the story, never the last chapter of the book. Death is a doorway into
resurrection – the old passes away in order that the new may come.

So it was to a shocked,
demoralised, despairing group of people, that God was revealed in a new way – a
way that meant they and those who followed them would never be alone again. As
God’s Spirit touched each life – people were empowered to go out – to spread
the news of Jesus Christ – to change the world!

We may have times when we are
despairing. We may have times when there seem to be only losses in our lives.
But with God, an end is never just an
ending, but always brings the hope of new beginnings. In the hardest times of
our lives, when we need God the most, and are able to rely on ourselves the
least – those are the times God often chooses to work miracles in and through
us.

Hymn Together in Song 417 Loving Spirit, loving Spirit

Notices -

Offering

Prayers of the People

God of all,

We pray for your world

That your Spirit would move over
it,

Just as in the time of creation

And bring new life.

We pray for your Church

That your Spirit would come upon
it,

Just as on the day of Pentecost

And bring new life.

We pray for ourselves

That you would breath your Spirit
into us,

Just as when you first formed us,

And bring new life.

In a time of silence, we pray for
those things that are most on our hearts and minds…..

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Earlier this month my children gave me an ebook reader. It’s excellent when my hands are sore and it’s difficult to hold a full paper book. It’s also excellent because a lot of older books, which are now out of copyright, are either free or incredibly cheap.

It’s meant I’ve been getting reacquainted with some old friends. My latest friend to catch up with is one of my favourite early church theologians, Athanasius. I’ve just finished re-reading his “The Incarnation”.

Most of the really important theological works of the early church came out of major disputes – and “The Incarnation” is no exception. With this Athanasius would (eventually) settle one of the church’s major issues. Along the way he’d be declared a heretic and sent into exile several times. (While studying early church history, I used to imagine Athanasius keeping his suitcase packed beside the door waiting for the next time he was sent into exile.)

The dispute was what we call the “Christological Debate” it was the question of the nature of Jesus. One extreme (which we call Arianism) said Jesus was God – and had just “put on” a human body – like an actor puts on a costume. This side of the argument said Jesus had never really experienced what it was like to be human, and had never felt any pain at the crucifixion, and hadn’t really died, it had all been an act.

The other extreme (known as Gnosticism, and very closely related to the modern New Age Religion) said Jesus was a very good human, who had achieved some level of divinity that other humans could achieve.

And then there was Athanasius who said both sides were wrong. In “The Incarnation” he said what is now one of the most basic beliefs of Christianity, that Jesus is both fully human and fully God. In his day, it was a radical statement, but it was one he supported from Christian Scripture for Christians, from the Jewish Scripture for Jews, and even from the world of Greek philosophy for the Greeks.

There’s so much in this one book that makes me love it, but it contains one of my favourite statements every by any theologian, and I would like to share that with you: His body was for Him not a limitation, but an instrument, so that He was both in it and in all things, and outside all things, resting in the Father alone. At one and the same time – this is the wonder – as Man He was living a human life, and as Word He was sustaining the life of the universe, and as Son He was in constant union with the Father.

What an amazing thing God has done in Jesus – and for no other reason than out of love for us!

Friday, 18 May 2012

As some of you may know, I’ve been quite unwell this
week. That probably explains what’s been
going on. Maybe I’ve been hallucinating,
or at least I hope I’ve been hallucinating.

You see, part-way through the week, I was convinced I’d
fallen through some sort of time warp back to the early 1980s. There were police out in force breaking up an Aboriginal protest in Musgrave Park. There was a listener calling in to ABC radio
to say he believed in “terra nullius,” that Aboriginal people never owned any
part of Australia. There was an Aboriginal activist complaining about the
government allowing an expansion of uranium mining on indigenous lands. There was the chant from the 80s “always was,
always will be Aboriginal land”. Of
course, this is the 21st century, and we’ve all learned the lessons
of the past. We’ve had sorry days, and a Prime Ministerial apology to the
stolen generation. We all understand each other better. None of this could
really be happening now. Equally, I must have imagined that our newly-elected
premier, in his maiden speech to parliament, would have paid tribute to a
previous premier who presided over one of the most intolerant, and corrupt,
periods of our state’s history.

Queensland has a very sad history when it comes to loving
our neighbour. It seems that much of the
intolerance and resentment has not gone away, just simmered under the surface
of society. It is exactly this kind of intolerance
and resentment that Jesus addresses when he tells us not only to love our
neighbour but also to love our enemy.

I hope and pray that Queenslanders really do understand love
and acceptance, and that this unfortunate week is just an aberration.

We thank you for the rain which
refreshes and brings life to the earth.

It provides us with the water we
need to survive, and reminds us of the wonderful ways you have used to show
yourself to your people throughout time.

You brought the nation of Israel
to birth as your people through the waters of the Red Sea. In the waters of the
Jordan, Jesus showed his solidarity with us by being baptised as a sinner – and
was shown by your word and spirit to be your son. In the waters of our baptism
you brought us to birth as your children.

We thank you for the sun which
shines on the earth – giving warmth and light and life. It reminds us of the
warmth and light of your love, and the life you have given us in Jesus.

We thank you for the wind which
we can’t see, but which as the power to move things and generate energy,
reminding us of your Spirit’s unseen but powerful presence.

And today we thank you for
mothers – for those good mothers whose love is a reminder of your love for us. We thank you for those people who have acted
as good mothers towards us in varying stages of our lives, showing us love and
care when we have needed it.

We confess that we have not been
worthy of your gifts to us.

We are human and share the
failings of all humanity.

In creating us, you gave us free
will, and we have not always chosen the best use of our will. We have not
always loved you with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We have not
always loved our neighbours as ourselves.

We have no excuse for our
failings, and we cannot overcome them for ourselves. We give you thanks that in
Jesus, you gave us the means for our failures to be forgiven and our lives to
be renewed.

In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Declaration of Forgiveness

Like a mother bird caring for her
chicks, God stretches out his wings to cover us and keep us safe. Whatever we have done, and wherever we have
been, God, in Jesus, calls us home to safety.

So I have confidence to say to
you: “Our sins are forgiven.”

Thanks be to God!

Kids’ Time

Hymn Together in Song 229 Jesus loves me, this I know

Scripture

1 John 5:1-6

John 15:9-17

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God!

Sermon

I wonder if you’ve ever had
trouble trying to find the right word to say what you want to say? I often do – but that’s called brain fog. At other times, the problem is that there
just doesn’t seem to be a word that exactly covers what I want to say. I think
the people who translated the Gospel reading had this problem. (Not brain fog – the issue of just not finding
the exact word.) They’ve used a word in English that just doesn’t say all that
the Greek does.

When Jesus says “You are my
friends”, the word is actually much stronger than “friends”. What the original
word used means is more like “you are the ones I love”. That’s more than a
friend – perhaps that’s a best friend (or maybe even better than best friend.)

Today I want us to think about
what it is to be best friends with Jesus. There’s a song by New Zealand band
The Lads, “My Best Friend’s the Creator of the Universe.” (I don’t know how to
get a recording of that on our screen here in church – but if you check the
worship services website, I’ll put a link to it on You Tube if you’re
interested.)

Having God as “best friend” seems pretty impressive – but that is
exactly what Jesus is inviting us all to in this passage from John’s gospel.

Children usually know what it is
to have a “best friend”. I think adults might sometimes lose the importance of
that one, best, closest friend.

You can go out and have fun with
any of your friends. You can enjoy being with any of your friends. But there
are some things you need a best friend for.

A best friend is someone you can
confide in – someone who will keep all your secrets and never embarrass you.
With a best friend, you’re free to be yourself – warts and all – and you know
that you’ll always be accepted. When you’re in trouble, it’s your best friend
you go to for help and you know they’ll always find a way to get you the help
you need.

Best friends stand by each other,
no matter how difficult the going gets. Jesus goes so far to say that a really
best friend would be willing to die for his or her friends. Jesus didn’t just
say it – he did it. This wasn’t just talk about some ideal. Jesus is the best
friend any of us can have.

When you have a best friend, you’re
never alone. You’ve always got someone to share the really good times, and the
really bad times, and all the in-between times, with. Your friend knows you
inside out – and you know your friend inside out – even though you don’t agree
with each other all the time, you’re always willing to accept the differences
and forgive the mistakes.

A best friend will understand you
when no-one else does.

Jesus says, you’re not my servants;
you’re my friends, best friends. And he proves his friendship by giving up his
life, to cover for our mistakes and misdeeds. He proves his friendship by
promising to be with us always, even when every other friend gives up. He is
the one who understands us, better than anyone else, who is always there to
support us, and will always forgive us. It’s Jesus we can always turn to no
matter how bad the mess we get ourselves into.

Jesus says, you’re not my servants;
you’re my friends, best friends. And what do we answer? After all, friendship’s
a two-way street. It’s our choice. Will we be his best friends for him?

Hymn Together in Song 230 It passeth knowledge that dear
love of thine

Notices

Offering

Prayers of the People

Gracious God,

You created the world and called
it good, and you affirmed your love by sending your Son into the world. Because
this is your world, we pray for it, knowing that you always want the best for
your creation.

Too often, human beings have
treated this world as if it had come about by some lucky chance, as if it didn’t
really belong to anyone and we could do what we liked with it. The consequences
of our foolishness are seen in the degradation of the soil, the pollution of
the waterways, the smogging of the air. Teach us, and all people to look at
creation as a wonderful work of art; to marvel at its detail and depth, to
stand amazed at its balance and beauty. Help us all, as we gaze upon the work,
to grow in our respect and admiration of the artist who created it.

Too often, human beings have
treated each other as if some were less important than others, as if the other
person was no so much human as ourselves. Even now, in a supposedly enlightened
time, there are wars and acts of terrorism going on in the world. Save us from
the sinfulness of seeing any human being as worthless.

Teach us, and all people, to see
the face of Christ in the other person. In the face of the person who has no
dignity, show us the face of the Christ who gave up a heavenly throne to become
a human being. In the face of the person
suffering, show us the face of the Christ who chose torment and torture for our
sake. In the face of the person we don’t agree with or don’t understand, show
us the face of the Christ who said and did so many things that people didn’t
agree with or didn’t understand. In the face of the person who tells us what we
don’t want to hear, show us the face of the Christ who so often told people the
truth they did not want to hear.

Too often human beings live as if
we were independent creators of our own lives: as if we were self-made people.
Teach us, and all people, to see that in our times of greatest weakness, our
greatest vulnerability, you are our strength. Help us to rely on you, not on
our own resources. Set our feet on the path to true greatness.

Today may be a great day for florists and chocolate companies, but it’s also a great day to remember the unconditional love a good mother has for her child. A good mum will love her child no matter what – even if sometimes that requires “tough love”.

That’s the kind of love Jesus set down for us when he said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” We’re meant to love unconditionally – which means loving those who are not “like us” as much as we do those who are “like us”.

There are so many groups marginalized in society, simply because they are “different”, and we could talk about any number of them. Today, I’d like to talk about people with mental health issues.

For some reason, society has developed this idea that having a mental illness is a sign of weakness or a personal failing, a character flaw. Yet, just like physical illnesses, mental illnesses are simply health issues that can happen to anyone. Most can be treated with therapy and with medication. People can be afraid to seek medical help for depression, anxiety, bipolar, or even schizophrenia, because they fear the stigmatization that they could suffer. Yet these diseases, left untreated can be fatal. Properly treated, people who suffer from these conditions lead happy, productive lives.

So while we’re remembering our mums today, and reflecting on that unconditional love that God shows us, and that good mums show their children, let’s recall that we are also called to love unconditionally – everyone.

Books by Iris, available in Paperback and eBook versions

Patchwork

Patchwork is an anthology of short stories and poems by author and blogger Iris Carden. In this volume, you will deal with the aftermath of a dog bite in Bad Moon Rising, spend a sleepless night with The Possum in the Roof, and investigate a weird religious cult in The Time of Blood and Death. The print version of the book has a bonus story not in the eBook version.

Beside Still Waters

A book of sermons and brief reflections on Christian Scripture, by Rev Iris Carden. There is no specific order to the items in the book, they are intended to each be a "surprise" in that they are not related to the items around them. It is hoped that in each, the reader will find something new or special, or unexpected, a message from God. Rev Iris Carden has a Master's Degree in Theology and more than 10 years of experience as a Christian minister.

Cat-it-orial

Mr Bumpy is such a talented cat, he even runs his own website: mrbumpycat.com. He is a blogger, and a very bad cat. His favourite hobby is world domination. His next hobby is harassing the humans and other animals he shares a home with. In this book, you can see the world through the eyes of a megalomanicat, and some of the other animals who share his home.

Group Meeting

(Novella) In a facility for people recovering from mental illness: a group of people with sinister pasts starts to be visited by a girl who doesn't exist.

Karlee

Failing author Terry Dixon is made an offer that seems unbelievable. He can have all of his problems solved, have everything he has ever wanted, for a price. The price is something that "will not be too difficult" for him to pay - but it is not specified what it actually will be. With bills mounting up and a deadline looming, Terry agrees to a deal with something he knows nothing about.<

About the Author

Iris Carden is a retired Uniting Church minister and former journalist. Lupus forced her to stop working. On good days she writes.